IRL: Sponsor Spotlight on AniVision, Inc.

INDIANAPOLIS, Wednesday, March 8, 2000 - When AniVision's NetRaceLive.com
opens its cyberspace doors at the 84th Indianapolis 500 in May, prepare to
see high-tech racing simulation games in a whole new light.
Thanks to a business and research ...

INDIANAPOLIS, Wednesday, March 8, 2000 - When AniVision's NetRaceLive.com
opens its cyberspace doors at the 84th Indianapolis 500 in May, prepare to
see high-tech racing simulation games in a whole new light.

Thanks to a business and research partnership formed with the Northern
Light Indy Racing Series in early 1999, AniVision, Inc., has, with Net
Race Live, created what will be considered the future of online
interactive gaming, according to AniVision President Brian Mitchell.

"We feel the 2000 Indianapolis 500 is the perfect launching pad for this
completely new business," he said. "Net Race Live is absolutely the next
generation in interactive online gaming, and the Indy 500 is the perfect
venue to introduce the game, in order to get the most international
exposure."

AniVision's Net Race Live Internet site (http://www.NetRaceLive.com) will
allow any race fan with a PC and Internet connection to race in a
simulated version of a Northern Light Indy Racing Series event immediately
upon the real-life race's conclusion.

"The whole concept of Net Race Live is that we collect data from the cars
during a race, and we process it so it can be delivered over the Internet
to Indy Racing games," said Mitchell. "From your PC you can connect to
this racing stream and be an additional car among the full field of the
actual Indy Racing series race."

The cutting-edge technology that allows this Indy Racing/AniVision
partnership to work is based on technology that AniVision originally
created for the U.S. Army.

"We've been working with the Army since 1993 to develop what they call the
'synthetic theatre of war,'" said Mitchell. "It is an Internet-integrated
battle lab that allows soldiers to train without physically bringing
everyone together.

"For instance, they have a training range in Germany with tanks
instrumented with telemetry similar to that on the Indy Racing cars. Those
tanks collect data that is sent to Fort Knox, Ky. The soldiers in Kentucky
are in simulators, and they put the two groups together on the same
virtual battlefield so they can train together over the Internet."

AniVision, based in Huntsville, Ala., was spun off as a private company in
October 1999 to focus on commercial Internet and technology products.
Before that, the company was a subsidiary of Thermo Electron corporation
since 1994. Thermo Electron is a Waltham, Mass.-based company specializing
in technology, environmental and healthcare products and had sales of $3.9
billion in 1998.

In addition to the NetRaceLive.com project, AniVision is active with the
Northern Light Indy Racing Series as sponsor of the Net Race Live Award,
which honors the driver who leads the most laps in each Indy Racing event
with a $10,000 bonus.

AniVision, an Indy Racing Promotional Partner, chose to sponsor the
Northern Light Indy Racing Series not only because of the Indianapolis
500, the series' cornerstone event and the largest single-day sporting
event in the world, but also because of the way the series has embraced
technology, Mitchell said.

"We started with Indy Racing because we felt they are the premier
technological innovator in motorsports," he said. "We found the league to
be very supportive at the licensing and competition level, and we realized
the series is very progressive in its use of electronics and sensors with
its cars. It has been extremely easy to work with the teams and drivers to
test our concepts and deploy them.

"So Indy Racing was the logical place to start because the technology is
there, in addition to the openness of the league and the Indy 500 and its
appeal nationally and overseas."

According to Mitchell, the partnership has the potential to benefit the
teams and league officials from an engineering and safety standpoint. For
instance, rookie drivers who have not competed at a venue may have the
opportunity to drive the track in a virtual reality setting before
actually getting in the car and onto the pavement.

In addition, AniVision's Performance 3D Pro race analysis tool can be used
to recreate on-track incidents in 3D animation. Teams, drivers and league
officials could evaluate the contributing factors of the accident.

"We developed software that was made available to race teams which takes
telemetry data and animates it," said Mitchell. "So for instance, if Buddy
Lazier just ran a fast lap, he can view the lap animation on a laptop PC
with his crew to see what he did right or wrong. It's as if the driver had
a virtual camera in the cockpit that shows the g-force loads, steering
position, rpm, the driving line - a lot of insight that helps the whole
team.

"All along we have been focused on developing Net Race Live, but we
started by working with the teams to develop their confidence in us and
our technology. We showed them how we can help them, in addition to our
business on the gaming side."

The success of AniVision's sponsorship and partnership with the Northern
Light Indy Racing Series has the company looking to expand its research
and to improve the product. These enhancements will benefit the teams and
the online Indy Racing fans.

"We're making improvements to the technology that enable us to get very
accurate estimates of where the cars are on the track - down to a few
centimeters," said Mitchell. "It will help teams improve their racing
lines on the track and run faster. And for Net Race Live fans, it means we
will have very realistic representations on our game."

For Northern Light Indy Racing Series fans who get squeamish at the
thought of turning left at 220 mph, AniVision's Net Race Live is the next
best thing to actually strapping in and hitting the gas.